During the 1960s, four major brands got into an intense competition over creating the first-ever self-winding chronograph wristwatch. Heuer and Breitling collaborated and received the support of Hamilton, Buren, and Dubois-Depraz, whereas Zenith and Seiko chose to go their own way. By early 1969 all four companies had come up with a chronograph wristwatch that featured automatic winding, and they had all done a remarkable job. The Caliber 11 from Heuer, the 6139 from Seiko, and Zenith’s El Primero all proved to be accurate and reliable, well-engineered movements, each of which would go on to inspire a diverse line-up of respective successors. The watch on offer here – ref. 51.2160.4047/01.C713 – is one of those successors.
The Chronomaster Grande Date Moonphase made its debut at Baselworld 2014, and it took the original El Primero concept to a whole new level.
Equipped with a hefty 45 mm stainless steel case topped by a smooth Rose Gold bezel, this version of the Chronomaster wears like a beast – a very sophisticated and elegant one. It simultaneously stays true to the recognizable El Primero design language and incorporates elements that one wouldn’t expect to see on what is essentially a sports chronograph. Among them, the open-heart aperture takes center stage, proudly exhibiting part of the ingenious El Primero caliber 4047 that powers the timepiece. The beautiful column-wheel movement is also visible through the display caseback, and it boasts a stop-seconds function as well as a moonphase complication that doubles as an AM/PM indicator. The latter’s psychedelic color palette stands out from the delicate sun-ray dial and complements the gold indices and hands. Further complications include Date, Hour, Minutes, and Seconds.
The watch is in superb cosmetic condition and is outfitted with a brand new OEM brown crocodile leather strap. Comes as watch only.
The watch is covered by 1 year of limited warranty from ChronoTimepieces.
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| Complications/Functions | Alarm, Chronograph, Date, Display back, Luminous hands, Luminous indices, Moon phase, Panorama date, Skeletonized, Small seconds, Tachymeter |